Well, last chapter was kind of annoying. Time for one that's... only partially a slog.
Already, we can see that the map of Serafew has changed up considerably, with us going from west to east as opposed to south to north.
We're again up a deployment slot, but given that, like last chapter, the map has become bigger, it's a good change. Speaking of good changes, let's look at Natasha.
Stat changes: +2 levels, +3 HP, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +1 Lck, +1 Def, +1 Res
Growth changes: +5% Spd, +5% Def, -5% Res
Natasha's changes are more to help her get up to speed opposed to helping her in the long run - she didn't really need much help in the growth department compared to Moulder.
Her inventory is the same as in the base game - Mend staff and a Vulnerary. There's no real setup to be done, but before we start...
Here's the chapter map as exported from FEBuilder. As I said earlier, we start in the west and have to move east and defeat Saar. While the town having distinct streets is a nice touch, there's no reason to
not go straight through the center. The most glaring change here is that
the arena is gone - actually, all of the arenas are gone. There's still skirmishes if you really need to grind for EXP, but there's an inherent problem with that which we'll see eventually.
Without an arena to scurry out from, Joshua just runs in from off-screen and takes up position in this forest.
Camera, what are you doing? This isn't even close to Natasha's actual position.
Gilliam visits the first house for... another Dragon Tear. So people just have these things laying around? The house's dialogue does change to reflect it not giving an Armorslayer, instead calling the Dragon Tear a potion that "makes your potential grow faster".
Garcia is going over here to bait out this archer in order to let Vanessa grab the house he's guarding later, and everyone else shuffles forward.
Ross gets the fighting started with a bang as he takes out the first soldier.
The Cavaliers on this map are new, and they're going to be pouring in from the top and bottom of this side street for the first few turns.
And they have the color palette of generic
allied cavaliers, for some reason.
Artur finishes off the Archer that Garcia fought for... this. The Defense is nice, at least.
Vanessa then dips into the house for a Dragonshield. Something I forgot to mention earlier is that while most of the stat boosters have remained the same, the Angelic Robe has been nerfed to boost HP by 5 instead of 7, similar to Awakening and Fates.
I'm not fond of using the Rapier like this against normal enemies, but thanks to how strength-screwed Eirika is so far, she needs it to be able to one-round these cavs.
I have Neimi take the Star Seal from Ross in the hopes that it would let her get the kill on this guy, but no dice. She could use the boost more, though, so she's keeping the seal.
Gilliam finishes him instead, and I wish he didn't.
The Silver Lance is proving to be a godsend.
I lost a few early runs to these Fighters, because they always seemed to get absurdly lucky at hitting Lute despite her being parked in a forest.
This time, though, she endures, with this godawful level as her participation trophy.
Oh yeah, these guys. Fortunately they're not likely to get to the houses, but there's a second set of them from the top too.
Ross helps clean up the Cavaliers, and-- oh god, not you too... At least it's a more important stat than Skill.
Also, I have Gilliam actually use a lance for what feels like the first time ever.
Eirika gets accosted by a cavalier and proves that she's been listening to me complain about her lack of strength.
At this point I turned off the backgrounds for battle animations, because as nice as the new backgrounds are I figure with new maps it's a little easier to tell what's going on if you can see the map in the background.
Franz picks a fight with this merc in the interest of actually getting to check out what's in these shops,
and the last of the enemy cavs goes down to Lute and Artur.
Archery contest! No one wins, and then it's on pause forever. You may have noticed the Wyvern Riders near the edge of the frame here; I'll come back to them in a sec.
Mostly because these Brigands have finally caught up... Eirika and Gilliam will be staying back to serve as distractions for them.
Vanessa finishes the archer for a very Vanessa level.
Meanwhile, Franz hits up the Vendor, which has had everything in its inventory switched out for its D-rank counterparts.
Shine: 8->7 Weight, 8->20 Crit, 30->50 uses
Franz picks up a Shine and a Mend - Lute doesn't need the extra Thunder.
Now, normally Franz would be in range of these fliers, but by some act of mercy they can't actually fly over the walls? So we're safe until we actually cross into the east half of the map.
Hi, Joshua! That's a fancy-looking sword you've got there.
Stat changes: +2 levels, +1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Def, +2 Res, -1 Con
Growth changes: -15% HP, +10% Str, -5% Skl, +5% Def, +5% Res
Joshua's stat boosts aren't all that impressive when you also consider that he's up two levels, but he makes up for that in growth department. I do have to question why he was given
more skill when that's a cap he rams pretty hard anyway, but whatever.
Killing Edge: 8->7 Might, 30->50 uses
Looks aside, the Killing Edge sadly isn't all that impressive, especially with the crit nerf taken into consideration.

(ignore my gold count here - I somehow missed taking a screenshot of the armory the first time and had to go back and do it later in the chapter)
Joshua heads off to the armory, and I'm suddenly regretting spending money at the vendor because I forgot you get Silver
this early and I'm pretty sure the world map version of this armory doesn't offer any of the silver weapons. This armory has steel and silver versions of all the melee weapons, plus hand axes and javelins.
Silver Sword: Rank reduced from A to C, 13->11 Might, 80->75 Hit, 20->50 uses
Silver Axe: Rank reduced from A to C, 15->13 Might, 70->65 Hit, 25->50 uses
Silver Bow: Rank reduced from A to C, 6->8 Weight, 13->11 Might, 20->50 uses
I splurge here and get a silver bow for Neimi, entirely skipping over steel for her because the silver bow is better in every way; even with its weight increasing it's still
lighter than the steel bow. The other silvers will have to wait for now.
That said, Neimi won't be using it right away as she's helping with the brigand cleanup.
Garcia is too!
Artur continues to not get lucky with crits, sadly.
And now, the bottlenecking begins. Vanessa and Franz are now in range of the Wyverns, and Vanessa... doesn't fare great against hers, double hit notwithstanding.
Franz does better, but isn't fast enough to double.
Fortunately for Vanessa, Lute and Neimi help pick up the slack.
Franz switches to the silver lance here...
...to let Vanessa finish this guy off.
Well, might as well break in the killing edge.
It turns out that the fliers can fly over.... exactly one tile of the wall, which is marked as a Fence instead? No idea if that's intentional on Seal's part or not. Anyway, Neimi takes out the pegasus in front of her.
Also, there's more new reinforcements, in the form of Even More Peg Knights and some cavaliers.
Natasha gets her first level, and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Well, this is getting chaotic...
Neimi
actually breaks in the silver bow now because without it, she can't kill from full health. It's worth it!
Vanessa sits on the fence so that the remaining pegs can't get through it.
Franz continues to hold the line. It's entirely possible that he'll cap strength before promoting, which is kind of wild to think about in comparison with vanilla Franz.
Ross is also holding the line for Gains, even if he took a hit here.
Oh no, a Slim Lance crit, whatever will I do?
Here's what I'll do.
Shine also gets a moment to, uh, shine.
A very minimal but good level!
:flame:
Eirika ends up being inadvertent pegasus bait, but she's still hanging in there, and we're almost done with this bottleneck as the reinforcements have stopped coming.
Lute starts the breakthrough off by taking out a cavalier. 999: Nine Magic, Nine Skill, Nine Speed
Joshua finishes one of the last peg knights,
and Neimi takes the other.
Vanessa finishes one of the last cavs, and... the other two don't move, so it's
finally time to press on.
Vanessa takes a Secret Book from this house (again unchanged from vanilla), and Garcia makes his way to the final house.
Gilliam works on dismantling Saar's wall of soldiers. Saar still has a javelin, but he's not very accurate with it.
He's otherwise pretty unremarkable, as he's just The Same But Slightly More compared to vanilla.
Natasha's second level is a
much better showing.
Artur gets a lucky crit (finally!) to finish another of Saar's groupies.
Neimi isn't so lucky, but Joshua is able to get a kill off of this.
Oh, by the way, that priest in the back?
Physic: Rank reduced from B to D, 15->20 uses, 22->25 EXP on use, healing formula changed from Mag+10 to (Mag/2)+20
I've been skipping over enemy inventories, but in cases like this where the enemy is getting shit before we can use it I'll make exceptions. Physic is
extremely good in this hack, healing as much as Mend without being locked to promoted units. It feels almost cruel that the hack teases you like this with it this early on.
That aside, Lute roasts another one of the stationary soldiers.
What are you gonna do with that big javelin? Gonna hit me? Better make it count. Better make it hurt. Better kill me in one shot.
Ross takes out the last cavalier to top off on a high note. He'll be promoting at the start of chapter 6, where we'll see something special this hack does with the trainees.
Meanwhile, Gilliam gets a very Gilliam level from finishing the final soldier.
I don't want you healing Saar, so get out.
Garcia finally gets to the last house, where he gets an elixir instead of a torch. I think I'd have preferred the torch, honestly, given chapter 6 is still a fog map.
Franz tries to get a swing at the boss, but no luck.
...Really?
Lute is a bit luckier.
I try to squeeze a bit more experience out for Vanessa, but she also gets unlucky and misses.
I had wanted Eirika to be able to one-round Saar to conserve some durability on the rapier, but oh well.

You were doing so well...
We still get the Guiding Ring for saving all the houses. Interestingly, promotion items (except Master Seals) in Sacred War give whoever holds them a slight stat boost, so as not to just take up space in the convoy - the Guiding Ring provides a passive +1 to Resistance.
NEXT TIME:
Ephraim and friends are in for the long haul.